Governor Mara Lezama Presents State Youth Award to 29 Young People in Bacalar

Bacalar, Quintana Roo — Gov. Mara Lezama Espinosa presented the 2026 State Youth Award to 29 young people from Quintana Roo at a ceremony held at the Fuerte de San Felipe in Bacalar, recognizing their talent, achievements and contributions to their communities.

The ceremony, held under the theme “Evening Under the Stars,” included an artistic performance and an astronomy observation session for the recipients and their families.

“Today this wonderful state, still very young, has 29 reasons to feel very proud of its youth,” Lezama said. “Eighteen awards and 11 honorable mentions recognize that talent, effort, sensitivity and commitment to our society, to the world and to nature. They are young people from 12 to 29 years old, in 10 categories that speak to the enormous diversity of our youth.”

The governor congratulated recipients from Felipe Carrillo Puerto, Benito Juárez, Othón P. Blanco, Cozumel, Bacalar, Lázaro Cárdenas and José María Morelos. “Quintana Roo needs young people like you who question, investigate, defend, ask, propose and participate,” she said. “We need those young people with that immense capacity to imagine a more just, more inclusive, more supportive state with more opportunities, and that has a government that believes in them and supports them.”

Lezama was joined by Verónica Lezama, honorary president of DIF Quintana Roo, the state’s family welfare agency; Alma Alvarado Moo, director general of the Quintana Roo Youth Institute; and Bacalar Mayor José Alfredo Contreras Méndez.

The 2026 award cycle drew 191 nominations in two categories: Category A for ages 12 to 17 and Category B for ages 18 to 29. A panel of 79 experts from 37 institutions in the public, private and social sectors, as well as business chambers, evaluated the applications. The panel was led by María de los Ángeles Díaz Martín, president of the qualifying jury.

The jury awarded 18 prizes and 11 honorable mentions in the categories of academic achievement, environment, science, citizenship, culture, sexual and gender diversity, entrepreneurship, humanitarian work, gender equality and inclusion.

Each honoree received a 20,000-peso cash prize, a statuette and an official certificate from the governor. The ceremony also included remarks by Contreras Méndez and Alvarado Moo, and was attended by Deputy Diana Friné Gutiérrez García, representing the state Congress, along with deputies Lilia Inés Mis Martínez and Saulo Aguilar Bernés, according to the state government.